Your Daily Dose of Freya

[BlackOak2]

I wasn't sure about the blanket. So seeing a side-by-side is quite helpful. Not a change at all.

And wow! The difference between weight and muscle gain in just those four weeks is really amazing. Mojo's got great milk!

I'm decently slim on my 'growing up foal' experience. I've seen a handful... literally. I think Freya would officially be (though because I've actually not visited her) would count as number four or five. Well... actually, thinking back, she may actually be the sixth or seventh. But that doesn't mean I've had much in the way of hands-on experience.

But if I were to compare the foals I've seen with Freya, she's every bit a match (if not topping) a fairly high-bred Andalusian mare and foal I was around for.
The others were more home-breds, for the most part. A couple were thoroughbreds, one born to be a racer, the other a competitor (don't know exactly what type of level expected from either though). And one I think... was a quarter horse colt that was slated to be national-level at least. But a quarter moves a little differently then a dressage-bred.

So... yeah, I'm certainly hoping she doesn't do much more than a scratch as she grows up. It really will be interesting to see her moving in a more adult form. Regardless of where she goes, her coat is stunning.

[Silverine]

Yeah. She hasn't started shedding out on her body at all yet so it's not surprising that it's still the same. She has just a tiny bit of shedding started on her nose so if she adds white anywhere any time soon it'll probably be on her face.

I didn't notice how much she'd bulked up until looking at those pictures. I'm there every day I can be and always hanging all over her so my brain didn't process it. But scratching her bum today I did notice how thick those hindquarters are getting. And when I say I'm hanging all over her I mean it - I drape myself over her back (not putting any pressure) and rub on her other side and under her belly. Today she was really into her bum scritches so I pressed right up against her bum and rubbed all over both sides at the same time. She was in heaven. It must be really itchy being a baby.

Today I led Freya and Mojo up to the round pen so I could get some video of Freya moving without her zooming around the field. I actually put the halter and lead on her and used them to guide her up. At first she was absolutely perfect, walking along behind like she'd done it for years. And then she seemed to think "wait, why am I doing this?" and stopped. And that was how the rest of the walk went - we'd go about 10 or 20 feet just fine and then she'd have to think about it. Which is all totally normal for a baby and her first time actually leading anywhere. Then at the end of the day my friend was out in the field with me and I brought the lead over and clipped it on to Freya's halter and handed my friend the rope. I told her to see if baby would follow her. My friend was nervous but Freya came right along without a problem (to be fair she was following all three of us - myself, my friend, and Mojo). She really is such a smart little girl.

And here is the video I got of Freya and Mojo in the round pen. Trot both ways and then canter both ways, though she switches her back end the second direction after she bumps into mom.

[BlackOak2]

Beautifully slow and controlled. GOOD body control overall. Hopefully as she goes through her growth spurts, that stays intact. Her trot... looks like the 'perfect' trot to post to and to learn how to post. Those with that style make you post!
I remember once being on a horse like that. Was told to 'sit the trot'. Yeah... most difficult sitting trot I ever tried! But I was barely from baby beginner stages and into novice riding stages. I did get it, eventually... and learned a number of other lessons from that horse as well Very good and important, lessons horses.

Have you spoken to Pax's owner recently? They may have some insight into how she stacks up to his other foals. It might be interesting to see (other than color) what's on their minds.

[FantasyRanch3]

How's Freya? She's probably huge by now!

[Silverine]

She's good! Growing like a weed. Though this week she grew more length-wise than height-wise. I keep meaning to take a measuring tape out there to string test her and then forgetting.

Here's a pic from yesterday:


If you look in the pic you can see that her umbilical cord fell off some time between when that pic was taken and the evening before. Which is exactly on time. (They're supposed to fall off at six weeks and she just hit six weeks on Tuesday.) The skin of her "belly button" is still a bit loose because of the hernia she had at birth but it's literally just skin and should tighten up as she grows.

She's also had two visits with the farrier and was decently behaved both times. At this age babies should have their feet balanced every two weeks to make sure they grow correctly. Freya has her next visit on May 5th.

Mojo is also cleared to go back to work now so we've gotten to start having some more fun adventures.

Here are some recent videos:

[h0rsey]

She looks like such a sweet girl! Learning a lot from mama Mojo

[SecretHolding]

I honestly cannot get enough of Freya! Shes so cute with her little markings! I think they're spreading or is it just me

[Silverine]

Freya had her first "tying" session today. I've been having trouble getting pics of her because she always shoves her nose at me (she's ridiculously cuddly) and she's been great about giving to pressure so I thought it was time to see how she'd do if she thought she was "restrained".

I didn't actually tie the rope - it was looped over the fence rail and then wound on itself to add a bit of friction. That way if she had panicked she wouldn't actually have been trapped and the rope would have come off the fence if she'd tried to bolt backwards.

But this little girl is so flipping smart. She didn't know what was going on so she backed up a bit but every single time she felt the halter add pressure she stepped forward. She backed up and then stepped forward a few times and then decided that was boring and started sniffing to see if any of the plants next to the fence were edible.



(It's hard to see in the pic but Mojo isn't actually tied either - I didn't want her panicking and pulling back to get to baby if baby panicked so I just draped her rope over the fence.)

We've had a few other adventures over the past week. Freya got to lead a trail ride with Mojo and I after a training horse dumped the barn owner and she asked if we'd lead for her. Freya has decided that she likes actually leading on the trail and will run off in front of us and then turn around and whinny when we don't keep up. She even led us through the stream once.

Yesterday I actually loaded Freya for the first time - meaning that instead of just letting her get on the trailer when she felt like it I had her on the lead and asked her to step in. She was super confused at first but eventually stepped up with me. We hung out for a few minutes then stepped off and then I asked her again. The second time she had no problem and stepped right on. I think her "hang up" the first time was that she wanted to follow me but didn't know how to coordinate between the pressure on her face and stepping up into the trailer. She didn't act frightened at all, just didn't know how to move her feet. Once that was figured out she was good to go.

And Thursday Freya got her feet done for the third time. Everything's still good. She was a bit more antsy than I expected since I've been working with her feet every day, but I think that's also because of balance. I was hanging on her face - which I don't do when I'm working with her feet because I can't do both at the same time - so she couldn't use her head to balance and so was moving her legs around a lot more than she would have otherwise needed to. Next time I will know not to do that.

Here's what she thought of the whole thing:

I honestly cannot get enough of Freya! Shes so cute with her little markings! I think they're spreading or is it just me

They're not spreading yet, she's just getting bigger. But she has officially started her foal shed so we'll see what happens once the baby fuzz is gone. (Though I'll be sad to see it go.)

I made this just before she hit one month, but her markings are still the same as they were in these pics. Top one is two days, bottom is four weeks:



And here are some videos for today.

Freya playing in the hay before I left today:


And trail fun:

[BlackOak2]

Well... maybe you should 'hang' on her in weird areas when other things are happening to her. Not much, obviously, but a little here and a little there. Not only will it teach her to learn to balance better when weird things are trying to upset it, but it'll also remind her that different things can go on all at one time.

The more exposure she gets when she's a baby, the less surprises there might be when she's older.

But she really is doing great! Hopefully, when she gets to that 'explosive' stage, it'll be more like a false pop and that's it.

She's a smart hay-lover.

[Secret Whisper]

I can't wait to see her fully grown